Dear folks,

I want to ask a favour. In the very kind thread which asked after me, I posted a response in an approximation of the Virginia hill dialect I recall from the folk who lived on or near my grandfather's place in the Blue Ridge, between Hot Springs and Covington. He could speak this dialect -- though it was not his habitual form of speech -- and often told stories in it, though his songs were drawn from a wider range and, generally, older sources. (Many were variants of English,Scottish and Irish folksongs that had found their way to the new world with colonists from the British Isles, e.g. [the many versions of] Barbara Allen.)

The favour is this: does anyone know any songs or stories from this part of the country, especially in dialect? My childhood memories are of "snips and snatches." I would love to flesh them out. (Before the scholars point out the volumes, "Traditional Ballads of Virginia" and "More T. B. o. V." Let me say that those were collected from that "wider range" to which I alluded earlier, and written under the auspices of the same Va. Folklore Society to which my grandfather devoted so much of his time and effort. (In fact, the family always insisted that without "Mr. Ben's" assistance, the author, Mr. Davis, wouldn't have known where to go or whom to ask for the material for his books.) It is material specifically in the local patois, for which I am currently searching.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Shula

P.S. Aside to Joe O.: when I showed you my copy of "M.B.o.V." I neglected to show you that it had originally been a presentation copy from one of the editors to Burl Ives (!!!), my childhood "favourite" folksinger, which tickled me no end when I discovered it. Of course, he mustn't have thought much of it to part with it, I suppose. Oh, and BTW, I just read a quote about Mr. Ives: Carl Sandburg called him "The mightiest ballad singer of this or any other century." I guess my childish preference had a bit more weight behind it than my own paltry puerile opinion, eh?